Garth Brooks recounts ordeal of divorcing Sandy Mahl after 14 years of marriage: 'Never been worse'
YUKON, OKLAHOMA: Garth Brooks has spoken about his worst era in his newly released book ‘The Anthology Part IV: Going Home’.
The 62-year-old singer has recalled the time when his marriage with his first wife Sandy Mahl was ending but he could not save it, as reported by whiskeyriff.com.
The songwriter and his 59-year-old ex-wife tied the knot in 1986 and went on to welcome three daughters — Taylor, August and Allie. But in 2001, they got divorced despite putting in all the effort.
At the time, Brooks in a statement shared, “Sandy and I both agree that we need to get divorced. Right now, we're focusing on the impact it will have on the children and how to handle that best, to remain parents even if we don't remain husband and wife.”
Garth Brooks said he’s never experienced anything ‘worse than’ divorce
Garth Brooks has also written about the difficult time in his book, “So, I announced my retirement and went to Oklahoma. When we first got out to Oklahoma, we stayed at Sandy’s parents. These were great people, people that I love.”
“They were the only ones I really knew out there. Sandy and I were going to make one last run at our marriage. Because, c’mon, you were married with your family present and in front of God, so you keep thinking it’s just got to work. Just one last go,” he stated.
Describing the divorce as the “roughest” time of his life, the ‘Standing Outside the Fire’ singer mentioned, “I hope it continues to be the roughest. I hope I never have anything worse than that era, right there. That hurt…”
Co-parenting with Sandy Mahl came with ‘a lot of learning’ for Garth Brooks
However, along with divorce, they also faced another challenge — co-parenting their children.
He noted, “Sandy and I started exchanging the kids everyday at six. For fourteen years we exchanged the kids every day at six, because we didn’t think it was fair that they would have to live without their mom or their dad.”
“So, there I was, back in Oklahoma where I was raised, settled in and just getting ready for… I didn’t know what. I was going to start learning every other day at 6 pm. And there was going to be a lot of learning,” the ‘If Tomorrow Never Comes’ hitmaker added.
Sandy Mahl said Garth Brooks’ super busy schedule ended marriage
This came after Sandy Mahl presented her side of the story regarding the divorce in the documentary ‘Garth Brooks: The Road I'm On’, released in 2019.
She reportedly said, “People constantly wanting your attention and yanking and pulling on him. He'd be gone eight to 10 weeks at a time. He'd come home, and there would be No. 1 parties, or shows, or CMAs, or ACMs, American Music Awards, so it was constantly going. But we both grew apart really, really quickly.”
“I don't think either of us had stopped to think about how this would change our lives,” Mahl added.
